Question o’ the Day – Rebecca Cantrell & Eric Beetner

Posted on Categories Writing, Author Interviews, Books, Question o' the Day1 Comment on Question o’ the Day – Rebecca Cantrell & Eric Beetner

I've been thinking about book promotion lately. Not sure why–probably because Left Coast Crime 2011 just finished up and a lot of my friends went. It made me ask the question:

These days writers have to do quite a bit of their own promotion to spread the word about their books. How much time do you spend "on the road" each year promoting your books? (This could mean conferences, book tours, local events, etc).

Final_cover_long_knives Rebecca Cantrell:

More time than I'd like! For A NIGHT OF LONG KNIVES, I did a 10 city tour that took a month (but I took several days off at the beginning and the end to just hang out in San Francisco and New York with my family). Plus Bourchercon and LCC (4 days each).

For A GAME OF LIES, I'm packing it into a 1 week tour, 4 days for Tuscon Festival of Books, 4 days for LCC, 3 days for the Hawaii Island Book and Music Festival. Still haven't decided on Bouchercon.

Holly's note: You'd better go to Bouchercon, Rebecca!

Eric Beetner:

Not much time at all 'on the road'. Most of that is due to two things for me: money and interest. Not 94212919 interest from me, I feel like I'd go anywhere, but interest from stores or any other place that does author events. I'm actually finding it surprisingly difficult to get anyone to have me. I discovered that the treatment I got at The Mystery Bookstore spoiled me and now I can't even get an email returned from any number of indie stores where I've sent books (at my expense for the purchase of the book and postage).

I know they are busy and are inundated with requests all day long but the lack of response has been a shock.

I've done two LCC's now and B-Con last year. I have every intention of doing B-Con again in St. Louis but that may change. Conferences for me are all about networking and meeting other authors, not book sales. Last B-Con I didn't sell a single book. Still had blast though so totally worth it.

Rebecca Cantrell is the author of the award-winning Hannah Vogel series and iDrakula (writing as Bekka Black).

Eric Beetner is the co-author of ONE TOO MANY BLOWS TO THE HEAD and BORROWED TROUBLE, and author of numerous award-winning short stories.

One Reply to “Question o’ the Day – Rebecca Cantrell & Eric Beetner”

  1. Anonymous says: November 9, 2011 at 10:10 am

    Je sais qu’ils sont trépidante et sont immergés avec des appels à la durée de la journée, mais l’absence de réaction a été un étourdissement.

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